Furtado and the Structuralist-Monetarist Debate on Economic Stabilization in Latin America

The paper investigates Celso Furtado's role in the controversy between structuralists and monetarists about inflation and stabilization, which took place in Latin America between the mid 1950s and early 1960s. Furtado was the first to relate Latin American chronic inflation to the new growth pattern of the region after the acceleration of the industrialization process as a reaction to the Great Depression of 1930s. The Brazilian economist criticized the applicability of the monetary approach to the balance of payments to developing countries, and put forward an alternative interpretation of the connection between external disequilibrium and inflation. Furtado formulated and tried to implement in 1962-63 the first structuralist stabilization plan in a Latin American country